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Brisbane 12 January 2006: Virgin Blue has reassured Hamilton Island of its plan to continue and expand flights to the island haven after growing demand in the past six months and a record month in December.

The airline launched flights between Brisbane and Hamilton Island in June 2005, and following strong bookings, upgraded its aircraft from a 144 seat Boeing 737-700 to a 180 seat Boeing 737-800 series aircraft and added extra flights over the current Christmas-school holiday period taking its schedule to a double daily service.

“Our December figures show our confidence and investment in Hamilton Island services is very well placed,” he said.

“Hamilton Island is high on our agenda, we are very happy with our load factors, the support we receive from our partners in tourism and it’s great to see our high quality lower fares approach is hitting the mark with travellers to Hamilton Island,” he said.

“Virgin Blue’s style of product has had such a strong response from travellers, we have added extra aircraft for the busy season, upgraded the size of the aircraft servicing the route and still we have recorded 100% load factors on some flights in December,” he said.

Mr Godfrey said Virgin Blue will continue to monitor its Hamilton Island services with a view to adding further routes to and from the island, when two additional aircraft join the Virgin Blue fleet later this year.

Virgin Blue, twice voted the World’s Leading Low Cost Carrier, has recently launched additional customer service and product advancements including its ‘Velocity” loyalty program in conjunction with Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and National Australia Bank and a progressive new ‘Web-Check-In’ service that lets travellers check-in for their flight via their PC from home, laptop, or office.